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The Cuban regime has launched in recent days one of the most aggressive campaigns of defamation and harassment in recent years against journalists and independent media, in an attempt to criminalize the practice of free journalism and consolidate an atmosphere of fear and censorship.
The attack, orchestrated from the State's propaganda apparatus, includes publications on Cubadebate, Granma and Razones de Cuba, a television program hosted by spokesperson Humberto López; in addition to coordinated messages on , amplified by accounts aligned with the regime and public officials.
In all cases, the pattern is identical: to accuse independent media of being “mercenaries,” “media terrorists,” or “instruments of international far-right”, while justifying potential criminal charges, extraditions, and extraterritorial sanctions against journalists who are currently working from outside the island.
The machinery of discredit
The regime's propaganda offensive began with an article published on November 26, signed by the so-called Media Observatory of Cubadebate and titled “X-ray of the far-right accounts operating against Cuba on X.”
The text, presented as a "technical analysis," was actually the starting point of a propaganda operation aimed at criminalizing independent journalism and critical voices from the exile community, which was echoed through X (formerly Twitter) by the Cuban regime's chancellor, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
In the article, Cubadebate claimed to have “detected” thirty accounts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that supposedly “lead campaigns of hatred against Cuba” and “are part of the cognitive warfare organized by the international far-right.”
None of those accounts are based on the island —the text specified— but “in the United States, Europe, and Latin America,” which according to the outlet would be enough to confirm the existence of “a foreign political operation”.
From that point on, the Communist Party's media machinery activated a unified discourse that combines technical language, conspiracy theories, and old labels from the ideological apparatus.
Rodríguez Parrilla amplified the message with a tweet nearly identical to the original text, stating that "the hatred against Cuba is neither spontaneous nor from the citizens, but rather an organized political operation by the international far-right."
What followed was an escalation on all fronts of propaganda: Granma and Cubadebate echoed the argument of “cognitive warfare”; Razones de Cuba went on the offensive with its “criminal investigation” against elTOQUE, and Humberto López acted as the regime's media executioner, with his usual programs commissioned by State Security to spread fear.
The purpose of this mechanism is clear: to associate criticism of the regime with treason to the homeland, equating the practice of journalism and freedom of expression with crimes such as "mercenarism" or "economic terrorism." It is the same language of repression from the 1960s and the Black Spring of 2003, now updated for social media.
With this new offensive, the government aims to construct a legal and moral narrative against free journalism, criminalizing not only the media but also the citizens who read, share, or quote them.
Reasons of Cuba and public lynching
The television program Razones de Cuba, linked to State Security and directed by Humberto López, published personal profiles of 18 alleged "executives" from the media outlet elTOQUE, featuring photographs, personal information, and unproven accusations.
The individuals mentioned were described as "mercenaries" involved in "criminal activities," under the label of "enemy platform against Cuba." The text also stated that there is an "ongoing criminal investigation" and that the journalists "could be extradited" if they travel to third countries, or imprisoned if they return to the island.
The message was replicated by Cubadebate, Granma, and Prensa Latina, as well as by dozens of social media profiles, many of them showing clear institutional coordination, which celebrated the "legitimate and necessary action of the Cuban state."
The objective is clear: to create an atmosphere of digital lynching, justify future reprisals, and instill fear among journalists both inside and outside the country.
The case of elTOQUE : A warning for everyone
Although elTOQUE is the primary target of this new wave, the strategy goes beyond a single medium. Its persecution is merely the tip of the iceberg of a state policy aimed at silencing all critical voices.
Exacerbated by the publication of the Informal Market Representative Rate (TRMi) - which reflects the real devaluation of the Cuban peso, the failure of the "economic and monetary ordering," and the effects of the "partial dollarization of the economy" - the campaign against the digital medium poses a direct threat to all independent Cuban press.
Since September 2024, several contributors to the media outlet have reported interrogations, threats, and psychological torture by State Security.
In recent broadcasts of his program, Humberto López displayed manipulated clips of those statements, accusing its director, José Jasán Nieves, of "currency trafficking" and "economic terrorism," a crime that does not exist in Cuban legislation.
But beyond that case, the message sent by the regime is unequivocal: no journalist is safe.
The publication of lists containing names, photographs, and personal addresses sets a dangerous precedent in the public criminalization of journalism and revives the methods of political persecution that Cuba employed during the Black Spring of 2003, when 27 journalists were imprisoned on charges of "mercenarism."
Censorship and Propaganda: The Digital Version of the Black Spring
The new offensive does not currently resort to courts, but rather to media lynchings. The sentences are not handed down in courtrooms, but on television screens, official websites, and controlled social media.
The totalitarian Cuban state, unable to justify misery and inequality, seeks enemies to blame: journalists, activists, economists, and any voice that does not echo the official narrative.
Media outlets such as elTOQUE, CiberCuba, Cubanet, and Diario de Cuba are portrayed as “tools of destabilization,” while the true source of the chaos—regime policies and military control of the economy—remains beyond question.
The use of labels such as "cognitive warfare," "media terrorism," or "international far-right" aims to replace public debate with fear. They are empty concepts with a technical facade, used to legitimate repression and provide a veneer of legality to what is nothing more than ideological persecution.
CiberCuba responds: Journalism is not a crime.
In response to the direct mentions that include it in this campaign, CiberCuba categorically rejected the accusations of "mercenarism" or "cognitive warfare" launched by Cubadebate, Razones de Cuba, and Chancellor Rodríguez Parrilla.
That speech is not new: it is the same one the regime has been using for six decades to discredit those who report what the power tries to hide.
The true enemies of truth are not in independent media, but in those who imprison, exile, and censor those who think differently; in those who indoctrinate children, control the internet, and keep the population in poverty while the elites live with the privileges of GAESA.
Fascism does not only disguise itself as far-right: it also wears the cloak of communism when it represses, censors, and denies freedoms. "Those who call themselves communists but act like fascists are the ones governing in Cuba," this media outlet responded on its this week.
"Denouncing repression, hunger, and inequality is not far-right; it is resistance against dictatorship and censorship."
In this regard, CiberCuba reaffirmed its commitment to the truth and to the right of Cubans to express themselves freely, as well as its intention to continue informing about what the regime seeks to conceal: widespread poverty, digital censorship, the forced exile of journalists and artists, and the moral degradation of a system that confuses patriotism with submission.
Independent journalism is not a crime. It is a public service. And if the regime needs to create enemies to justify its failures, it should know that every lie only confirms what they are trying to deny: that the truth remains alive and cannot be imprisoned.
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